The Long-Term Impact of the Feedback Environment on Job Satisfaction: A Field Study in a Belgian Context

This study examines (1) the relationship between the feedback environment and job satisfaction and (2) the mediating role of leader–member exchange in a Belgian context. Results from a sample of 155 employees of a governmental service for employment and vocational training supported our hypotheses. A favorable supervisor feedback environment was related to higher levels of job satisfaction 5 months later, and this relationship was fully mediated by the quality of leader–member exchange. These findings highlight the usefulness of diagnosing and assessing the feedback environment for a better understanding of feedback processes and for enhancing feedback interventions in organisations.
Ce travail examine dans un contexte culturel belge 1) la relation entre la satisfaction professionnelle et le feedback provenant de l'environnement 2) le rôle médiateur des échanges leader-collaborateurs. Nos hypothèses ont été confirmées par les conclusions issues d'un échantillon composé de 155 employés d'un service d'Etat de retour à l'emploi et de formation professionnelle. Un environnement rétroactif positif provenant du chef immédiat était en rapport avec un niveau plus élevé de satisfaction professionnelle cinq mois plus tard, et cette relation était maximisée par la qualité des échanges entre le leader et les membres du groupe. Ces résultats montrent qu'il faut prendre en compte et évaluer la rétroaction environnementale pour une meilleure appréhension des processus de feedback et pour améliorer les interventions dans les organisations portant sur le feedback.     

True or False? Keying Direction and Acquiescence Influence the Validity of Socio-Emotional Skills Items in Predicting High School Achievement

What type of items, keyed positively or negatively, makes social-emotional skill or personality scales more valid? The present study examines the different criterion validities of true- and false-keyed items, before and after correction for acquiescence. The sample included 12,987 children and adolescents from 425 schools of the State of São Paulo Brazil (ages 11–18 attending grades 6–12). They answered a computerized 162-item questionnaire measuring 18 facets grouped into five broad domains of social-emotional skills, i.e.: Open-mindedness (O), Conscientious Self-Management (C), Engaging with others (E), Amity (A), and Negative-Emotion Regulation (N). All facet scales were fully balanced (3 true-keyed and 3 false-keyed items per facet). Criterion validity coefficients of scales composed of only true-keyed items versus only false-keyed items were compared. The criterion measure was a standardized achievement test of language and math ability. We found that coefficients were almost as twice as big for false-keyed items’ scales than for true-keyed items’ scales. After correcting for acquiescence coefficients became more similar. Acquiescence suppresses the criterion validity of unbalanced scales composed of true-keyed items. We conclude that balanced scales with pairs of true and false keyed items make a better scale in terms of internal structural and predictive validity.     

In Defence of Metametasemantics

In the paper I defend the idea of metametasemantics against the arguments recently presented by Ori Simchen (2017). Simchen attacks the view, according to which metametasemantics incorporating all possible metasemantic accounts is necessary to protect the metasemantic theories from the notorious problem of inscrutability of reference (see Sider 2011). Simchen claims that if metametasemantics is allowed it ‘absorbs’ metasemantic theories to the extent that it diminishes their explanatory value. Furthermore, in this way Simchen sets up two main metasemantic paradigms i.e. productivism (roughly speaking: speaker’s metasemantics) and interpretationism (audience’s metasemantics) as the rival theories inevitably excluding each other. I endeavour to undermine Simchen’s point by demonstrating that his argumentation mixes up deflationary reading of the predicate ‘is true’ with its substantial reading. Consequently, I demonstrate that accepting metametasemantics does not diminish explanatory value of various metasemantic theories and thus that there is no good reason to forbid metametasemantics. I also argue that even if we ignore the above-mentioned confusion in Simchen’s reasoning, his arguments still fail when considering various problems with the notion of diminishment of explanatory value and because the analogy that his arguments are based on is fairly weak. Eventually, I conclude that metametasemantics does not pose any danger to metasemantics and that it provides a solid ground for developing a theory that benefits from both productivism and interpretationism.

     

Do overall dimension ratings from assessment centres show external construct-related validity?

ABSTRACT

There have been repeated calls for an external construct validation approach to advance our understanding of the construct-related validity of assessment centre dimension ratings beyond existing internal construct-related validity findings. Following an external construct validation approach, we examined whether linking assessment centre overall dimension ratings to ratings of the same dimensions that stem from sources external to the assessment centre provides evidence for construct-related validity of assessment centre ratings. We used data from one laboratory assessment centre sample and two field samples. External ratings of the same dimensions stemmed from assessees, assessees’ supervisors, and customers. Results converged across all three samples and showed that different dimension-same source correlations within the assessment centres were larger than same dimension-different source correlations. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses revealed source factors but no dimension factors in the latent factor structure of overall dimension ratings from the assessment centre and from external sources. Hence, consistent results across the three samples provide no support that assessment centre overall dimension ratings and ratings of the same dimensions from other sources can be attributed to dimension factors. This questions arguments that assessment centre overall dimension ratings should have construct-related validity.     

From Autocracy to Empowerment: Teams with Shared Leadership Perceive their Coaches to be Better Leaders

Sports coaches often fear that empowering the players in their team would undermine their own leadership status. To investigate the legitimacy of this perception, we mapped the leadership structure within 64 sports teams (N = 840). The results highlight that the perceived leadership quality of the coaches is positively related to the density of their team's leadership networks (i.e., the average leadership qualities of all players). This finding held for task, motivational, social, and external leadership. The best coaches are thus the ones who adopt a shared leadership approach and who strengthen the leadership quality of their players.

Lay Summary

Sports coaches often feel that empowering the players in their teams undermines their own leadership status. This study investigates the legitimacy of this perception within 64 sports teams. Our findings provide evidence for the opposite view; by creating and developing leaders in their teams, coaches are perceived as better leaders themselves.     

Measurement Equivalence of Paper-and-Pencil and Internet Organisational Surveys: A Large Scale Examination in 16 Countries

In multinational surveys, mixed‐mode administration modes (e.g. combining Internet and paper‐and‐pencil administration) are increasingly used. To date, no studies have investigated whether measurement equivalence exists between Internet data collection and data collection using the conventional paper‐and‐pencil method in organisational surveys which include a large number of countries. This paper examined the measurement equivalence of a truly global organisational survey across Internet and paper‐and‐pencil survey administrations. Data from an organisational survey in 16 countries (N = 52,461) across the globe were used to assess the measurement equivalence of an organisational climate measure within each country in which the survey was administered. The empirical data provided strong indications which support the measurement equivalence of the multi‐item survey instrument across Internet and paper‐and‐pencil surveys in virtually all countries in which the survey was conducted. These findings suggest that merging data obtained through Internet and paper‐and‐pencil data administration in a particular country is legitimate as no evidence was found for differential effects across both modes of data collection. Dans les enquêtes internationales, les modalités d’administration mixtes, c’est‐à‐dire combinant les solution Internet et papier‐crayon, sont de plus en plus utilisées. Jusqu’à présent, on ignore si le recueil de données par Internet est méthodologiquement équivalent au recueil traditionnel sur papier dans les enquêtes organisationnelles qui couvrent un grand nombre de pays. Dans cet article, on analyse l’analogie des mesures d’une enquête organisationnelle véritablement universelle utilisant à la fois une administration Internet et papier‐crayon. Des données provenant de seize pays (N = 52,461) répartis sur l’ensemble de la planète ont été exploitées pour évaluer l’équivalence méthodologique d’une mesure du climat organisationnel dans chacun de ces pays. Les résultats empiriques sont en faveur de l’équivalence méthodologique de l’ensemble des items pour les recueils Internet et papier‐crayon dans pratiquement tous les pays retenus pour l’enquête. Ces résultats montrent qu’il est légitime de traiter ensemble les données obtenues par Internet et par papier‐crayon dans un même pays puisque rien ne nous permet d’affirmer l’existence d’un effet différentiel dû aux deux modes d’administration.     

Revisiting scene primes for object locations

Sanocki and Epstein (1997) provided evidence that an immediate prior experience of a scene, as a prime, can induce representations of its spatial layout, facilitating the subsequent spatial processing of objects in the target scene. In their experiments, observers responded to target scenes by indicating which of two critical objects was closer in the pictorial space. Reaction times to target scenes that were preceded by same-scene primes without the critical objects were faster than reaction times to target scenes that were preceded by different scene or control primes (geometrical figures). By manipulating the nature of the prime and the interval between prime and target, and by cueing the position of the critical objects, we obtain evidence that the facilitating effect of the same-scene primes can also be explained by the sudden appearance of the critical objects in the target scene. In same-scene conditions, the critical objects cause a local onset, whereas in different-scene and control conditions the entire target scene causes a global onset. As a result, the local onset in the same-scene condition produces a shift of attention towards the critical objects, resulting in faster processing of the critical objects.     

Will Bootstrap Clustering Resuscitate Repertory Grid Assessment of Cognitive Complexity? Convergence with Integrative and Dialogical Complexity Suggests It Could

This article is concerned with an introduction and examination of a new cognitive complexity index derived from repertory grid data. Our approach follows Heckmann's and Bell’s introduction of bootstrap clustering of grid data. In order to examine the validity of the new index, we reanalyze data from an older study. The reanalysis showed that the new index correlated significantly with other independent complexity indices: integrative complexity and dialogical complexity. The directions of correlations were in accordance with complexity theories that underlie the indices. These findings support the validity of the cognitive complexity index based on bootstrap clustering.